Hi all... looking for some guidance. In 2014 I qualified and will be running my first Boston. BQ 3:05:03. Then I am doing the B2B Boston to Big Sur Challenge which is 6 days apart this year. I want to go for a sub3 in Boston. I started looking at training schedules but cant find many that are geared to sub3. Any guidance on a good schedule to follow? Thanks!

Hi all... looking for some guidance. In 2014 I qualified and will be running my first Boston. BQ 3:05:03. Then I am doing the B2B Boston to Big Sur Challenge which is 6 days apart this year. I want to go for a sub3 in Boston. I started looking at training schedules but cant find many that are geared to sub3. Any guidance on a good schedule to follow? Thanks!

Hi! How do you determine if the schedule gears toward sub 3 or not. For example, there are many runners who follow Pfitzinger 18 week 70 miles max plan with goals of sub 4 and a goal of sub 3. They just use different training paces. In any case, you can probably safely choose any one of the following plans - from Pfitzinger, Daniels, Hudson or Hansons with weekly mileages of 60-70 (or above, of course) and train to get sub 3 using recommended paces. Most of the sub 3 runners here use Pfitz, I think, few use Daniels or Hansons and some use their customized versions of the above mentioned plans (but they usually trained with few of them before and know pretty good what works best for them).

Hi Calbearsfan.. Thanks for the advice! I'll check those out. I guess I was just looking for an advanced plan. I see a lot of plans geared towards time goals which is what ive used in the past. The Pfitzinger plan looks like a good one. Thanks for your help! Originally Posted by calbearsfan:

Originally Posted by rseab76:

Hi all... looking for some guidance. In 2014 I qualified and will be running my first Boston. BQ 3:05:03. Then I am doing the B2B Boston to Big Sur Challenge which is 6 days apart this year. I want to go for a sub3 in Boston. I started looking at training schedules but cant find many that are geared to sub3. Any guidance on a good schedule to follow? Thanks!

Hi! How do you determine if the schedule gears toward sub 3 or not. For example, there are many runners who follow Pfitzinger 18 week 70 miles max plan with goals of sub 4 and a goal of sub 3. They just use different training paces. In any case, you can probably safely choose any one of the following plans - from Pfitzinger, Daniels, Hudson or Hansons with weekly mileages of 60-70 (or above, of course) and train to get sub 3 using recommended paces. Most of the sub 3 runners here use Pfitz, I think, few use Daniels or Hansons and some use their customized versions of the above mentioned plans (but they usually trained with few of them before and know pretty good what works best for them).

Hi Calbearsfan.. Thanks for the advice! I'll check those out. I guess I was just looking for an advanced plan. I see a lot of plans geared towards time goals which is what ive used in the past. The Pfitzinger plan looks like a good one. Thanks for your help! Originally Posted by calbearsfan:

Originally Posted by rseab76:

Hi all... looking for some guidance. In 2014 I qualified and will be running my first Boston. BQ 3:05:03. Then I am doing the B2B Boston to Big Sur Challenge which is 6 days apart this year. I want to go for a sub3 in Boston. I started looking at training schedules but cant find many that are geared to sub3. Any guidance on a good schedule to follow? Thanks!

Hi! How do you determine if the schedule gears toward sub 3 or not. For example, there are many runners who follow Pfitzinger 18 week 70 miles max plan with goals of sub 4 and a goal of sub 3. They just use different training paces. In any case, you can probably safely choose any one of the following plans - from Pfitzinger, Daniels, Hudson or Hansons with weekly mileages of 60-70 (or above, of course) and train to get sub 3 using recommended paces. Most of the sub 3 runners here use Pfitz, I think, few use Daniels or Hansons and some use their customized versions of the above mentioned plans (but they usually trained with few of them before and know pretty good what works best for them).

rseab76 - actually, all the plans I know of are geared towards weekly mileage, not a goal time. Based on weekly mileage you kind of can put them into different categories - plans with 60 miles and above usually are advanced plans. But, again, you can still use 70 miles plan and run your LRs at 10 minutes per mile. Which will put you to something like sub 4 territory. Or you can use the same plan (I am talking about 18/70) and run your LRs at 7:40 avg per mile, that may put you in sub 3 territory. So, the same plan - different goals. That's how I used to see them work.

Back now had a really good race but there was a major f up. 1km in everbody came to a screaming halt as a train was crossing the road.

I did a light 2km warmup before the start. I lined up at the start behind the Mcdonald twins and Ben Ruthe who ended up 1st 2nd and 3rd. All 14 min 5k guys.There were 1133 runners and quite a few fast folks on the front row.Off we went and just after the 1km the race came to a halt as a train was crossing. I stopped and restarted my watch and the time difference to my finish time was 40 secs. Alot of slower runners arrived as the train left and they even snuck round the last carriage before we got away.It was really windy but overall there was equal head tailwind assistance.Anyway over the harbour bridge with a downhill off the bridge and tailwind I was flying along at 3.30/kmThrough 5km in 18:05 and running on my own along a 3km long flat straight. One guy about 100m in front of me and im slowly gaining. Im a little deflated by the train incident as my 10k split pr attempt was lost. We get to 8kms and a drink station. I grab a cup and literally throw it at my open mouth. Unfortunately half of it ends up in my lungs and im gagging and hoicking lol.Onto the last 3.5kms of my usual Mount Maunganui base track, undulating and winding but totally familiar to me. A lady calls out im 11th. Mmm top 10 would be sweet.I catch the young guy in front of me and he suddenly grabs his lower leg and cries in pain as I pass haha. Im pretty sure he faked it.I gap him and the only runners/walkers ahead are loads of 5ker who are taking up the whole track. Im weaving and dodging, into the ditch and back to the track calling out coming through to the hordes of walkers.Up and down the last but biggest hill down onto the sand and over the finish in 41:53 for 11.15 kms on my watch average pace 3.46/km but I had 2 kms over 4 mins on the last 3kms of offroad.Results show im 11th/1133 so not quite top 10 but 1st 45-49 and in fact 1st master of any age group over 35.Im happy I was not dying at the end compared to 2010 when I ran it in 56 mins and was totally smashed after.I also ran it in 2011 in 44:xx.

Frank Im starting to agree with you about the Pfitz schedule and the strain thing when Im supposed to go out and run 6 x 1000s on tuesday. I only did this tune up race as it was available but will likely forgo the next 2.

63 miles for me in taper week number 2. A couple of track work outs and a 13 miler today. For some reason that 13 mile run today seemed to take forever. Outside of a right hip which feels a little wonky, I feel ready to go.

Ninja - did I forget to add you to the chart? Good luck with the last 20 miler. How long is your taper?

I thought I was in the list, feel free to add me. Having it written down will make me push harder in the race.. My Race is Denver R&R on Oct. 20th. I was hesitant about going for sub three, but after the last two weeks I think I need to go for it.

20 miler went great. Last week my long run was a 16 miler with 14 at 7:10, so for this 20 I wanted to take it nice and easy to be on my feet as long as possible. Did it at a comfortable 8:13 average with a slight negative split that I wasn't trying to get. Felt strong the whole time to round out a 65 mile week (personal best weekly mileage).

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